Home-based food vendors hail new law

Portrait of Bridget Doyle, owner of Bridget Rose Delights, as she's about to place a batch of her popular Peanut Butter Fudge mixture she made into her home refrigerator for cooling. It's one of the four different flavors she makes of her fudge.
— Charlie Neuman

Portrait of Bridget Doyle, owner of Bridget Rose Delights, as she's about to place a batch of her popular Peanut Butter Fudge mixture she made into her home refrigerator for cooling. It's one of the four different flavors she makes of her fudge.
— Charlie Neuman

Escondido’s proposed ordinance, which the council is scheduled to approve Nov. 20, would limit hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to prevent nighttime and early morning traffic. In addition, parking for the business would be limited to spots typically used by people living in the home.

Redlitz said the new law gives Escondido the discretion to make such restrictions.

But Preston said many other cities have regulations on home-based businesses in place that must be repealed because they contradict the new state law.

For example, El Cajon says all business equipment, which would now include ovens, must be stored in a truck.

Bridget Doyle, an Oceanside resident who recently launched a successful home-based fudge business, said state officials made the right move outlawing such restrictions and allowing people like her to chase their dreams.

“I was just giving my fudge to friends and family before the new law passed,” Doyle said. “But now I’m on the shelves of two grocery stores and the future looks really bright.”

Doyle says she had been unsuccessfully applying for administrative jobs in medical offices when she found out the new law passed. She said it lowered her startup expenses to $500, far less than it would have cost to rent a commercial kitchen. Working from home also allowed her to build slowly, she said.

Doyle and Preston said concerns about home-based businesses are overblown.

The state law limits gross revenues for individual vendors to $45,000 in 2014 and $50,000 in 2015 and future years, which will force many successful businesses to migrate out of neighborhoods and into commercial settings.

A county spokesman said there haven’t been any significant problems with the new law. He said county officials have focused on educating vendors and making sure they only plan to sell products the new law allows.